All We Needed
by Lourdes777
Summary: The space between, the wicked lies we tell, and hope to keep safe from the pain." -Dave Matthews Band


A/N: Read and (hopefully) enjoy! Anything you recognize isn't mine.

Usually Aiden drove. Usually Danny got to wherever they were going considerably paler, with a small headache and a small bit of nausea. Today was not one of those days. Danny drove slowly, comfortably, with Aiden in the passenger seat. Today she had not sprinted past him to the car to get there first, or slammed him out of the way. Even with significantly less body mass, Aiden had grown up with all brothers, and she was scrappy when it counted. But not today. Today she was quiet, fighting nausea in the seat beside him, and it wasn't from bad driving.

"Ya okay?" He asked, sparring a glance in the New York traffic.

She swallowed thickly. "If I had driven we would have been there five minutes ago."

"And then we both woulda been nauseous. Here, drink this." He tossed bottled water her way.

She smiled gratefully and took a sip. And tossed the door open and threw up.

"That's real attractive, Aid. Real cute."

"Yeah, cuz' that's what everyone's goin' for when they've got the flu." Another thick swallow followed.

He quirked an eyebrow. "Ya' coulda' stayed home."

"Yeah, right. And let you work with that prostitute. What's er' name again? Asian, technically "good" physique, voted most likely to be starring in the next must-see video?"

"Ha. Funny. Lisa."

"Yeah, her. Ha. Forensic Investigator, my –ass-. She just wants yall' to get a good look at her, I'm tellin' ya, whore of the entire unit."

"Look who's talkin', Aid!"

"Scuse' me?"

"Wheneva' we pull up at a scene, the nearest officer seems to wanda' his way over to ya."

"Hey, we both know I didn't ask fo' that."

"Easy, I know ya' didn't, I'm just sayin, ya know."

"Yeah, yeah."

Even though it was a particularly soggy day in New York, many of the prisoners were in the exercise yard, which was located directly on the sidewalk. Anyone who passed by was lucky enough to get a comment passed at them. Real classy place.

Danny and Aiden got out of the car, Aiden hacking violently as she did so. The kind of phlegmy-sounding, rattling couch you get when you're really sick. Danny furrowed his eyebrows, feeling slightly bad, she really was pretty sick.

The hacking continued, and Aiden spit a bunch of green mucus out onto the sidewalk.

"Agh! Can ya' at least act like a girl? Pretend if ya' gotta."

Aiden flipped him the bird, and threw up more liquid onto the sidewalk. After a bit more coughing, she straightened up and popped gum into her mouth.

"Ya' okay? Ya can wait in the car if ya want."

"Nah, I'm fine."

They made there way into the visitors entrance, many gross inmates whistling at Aiden in the process. Danny flipped them off without a feeling of remorse. Stupid bastards.

The prison smelled like urine and ass. Aiden shriveled her nose in disgust and tried not to throw up, getting a bit dizzy. Guards took Danny up to an interrogation room, and he sat down, waiting for James Montebello. Another guard to Aiden to a cell, where a particularly trashy looking guy stood.

"Conway Gerard?" She asked, trying to sound like the voice of professionalism, even though she was sick out of her mind.

"Yo, sweet thang. You come to get a piece of the C-man?"

"Fageda bout' it. Ya' got a girl named Roxy Lewis?"

"Sure, on the outside. She a whore, ya know? But a guy needs a lay every once in a while, ya' know?"

"No, actually."

"Whatever, Honey."

"We found Roxys' body in a mail box. Ya' have any idea what's up with that?"

"No, I'm in jail, baby."

"Doesn't mean ya don't have a brother on the outside who did the job for ya."

Conway was getting pissed, Aiden could tell, he moved closer to the bars.

"Look, I didn't order a gang kill on that bitch if you know what I mean, but she caused too much trouble to be done with."

"Doesn't mean she had to be killed."

"I didn't kill the bitch!" He yelled, right in Aidens' face. Danny stood a few feet behind Aiden, but neither noticed.

"Back off."

"No, bitch, you back off. Sneakin' round here, actin' all like you're better than everyone else. I know where you from, you from Brooklyn, bitch. Don't act like you all better than everyone else, above this shit? I knew your mama, girl. I know all about the shit she did. No matta' how high up ya' gone, ya' still that girl from Brook, ya know that, ya momma was a whore, and you're a whore too, girl, she deserved what happened to her, ya know that?"

"Back –off-."

"Fuck you, girl." Aiden never even saw it coming, he knifed her arm in a split second, and she tazered him, he went down, Aiden was too angry to think about anything, about Danny's' arm around her waist, pulling her back, or the guards wrestling the knife of Conway, or the blood trickling down her arm. Or the tears welling in her eyes. She pushed Danny off her and stormed down six flights of stairs, Danny following in close pursuit.

She flung the visitors tag at the desk guy, and stumbled onto the sidewalk, giving into the nausea overtaking her, she threw up, the heaves shaking her body, and the cold felt like it was slapping her face. The blood was dripping off her arm, but she couldn't even feel it.

Flashback-

"Mom……mom?" A twelve year old Aiden Burn walked into the kitchen, she had heard a noise in her sleep, but one of her older brothers, Gideon, had told her to go back to sleep. She had six brothers. Aiden heard the noise again, she turned to corner in the ramshackle house, to see her mother, half naked on the floor, gurgling, choking on her own blood. Even at her young age, Aiden knew what had happened. It was obviously a gang rape and kill. Aiden stood speechless as her mother stopped moving. There was so, so much blood. Aiden felt something sticky on her feet. She looked down, and all of her pajama pants were covered in it, her mothers blood was all over her feet, the floor, the counter, everything. She slipped and fell in it, and she heard someone screaming loudly. She would later realize it was her.

Frank, the oldest, sixteen, was pulling Aiden out of the blood, still screaming. Calvin, four, stood taking in everything, too young to understand. Aiden couldn't seem to stop.

End of flashback-

Aiden could feel someone holding her hair out of the way as she vomited, tears pouring down her pale face. Her arm was stinging, and she guessed she would need a tetanus shot. Danny rubbed her back carefully.

He didn't say anything, just led her to the car, and gave her his coat to wrap around her arm until they got to the hospital.

It took eighty stitches to close Aidens' arm. The cut wasn't too deep, but it was dirty, and it stretched from her wrist up to her elbow. Danny stood in the room, drinking hospital coffee as they stitched her arm. They couldn't give her any pain killers because of the flu; it would make her too foggy. The doctor left the room to get bandages, and Aiden stared blankly ahead.

"I'm sorry bout' your mom."

Aiden looked up at Danny. He was studying at her intently.

She struggled for the right words. "Yeah, yeah….it…it was a long time ago."

"Still, though."

"Yeah, thanks."

She could feel the tears welling up again and bit her lip, looking at her arm, angry that there would be a rather obvious scar, and even more angry at herself, for everything.

She felt his arm on her shoulder, rubbing it gently, and she met his eyes, resting her head in the crook of his neck gratefully. His other arm wrapped around her waist pulling her to him and she sniffled, holding onto the front of his shirt, because he was all she had.

She was sleeping on the couch in the break room, she had just been sitting there, but she had gradually slunk down and fallen asleep. He put a blanket over her and kissed her forehead gently, heading to Mac's office to give him the report.

The file slapped onto the desk an inch from Danny's' hand. He looked up to see a triumphant-looking Aiden.

"What up, Aid?"

"The liquid we found on Roxy Lewis's body is a mixture of chlorine and caramelized soda water."

"So…she was covered in pop mixed with chlorine. That makes no sense."

"Exactly. This is why I talked Dr.Hawkes into letting me dig under the goo, and guess what I found?"

"What'd ya get?"

"Bleach."

"Bleach? So whoever killed her was trying to clean something off of her."

"Yeah, but the question is: Why didn't he just use water?"

"There was something on there water wouldn't remove, obviously but what?"

"Paint."

"What?"

"She was covered in glow-in-the-dark paint."

"Like the kind in a paint club?"

"Exactly. We found traces of it underneath her fingernails. The soda water and chlorine was splashed on post-mortem. I'm thinkin' there was a pretty wild party goin' on somewhere."

"Like a kegger?"

"Not sure. That's what we get to go find out."

Danny slammed forward as Aiden Hit the breaks and flew backwards again as she slammed on the gas.

"Ya know, whoeva taught ya to drive obviously wasn't a trained professional."

"Puh-leaze. My brotha' Dean taught me to drive. I think ya' just not used to it, what, with ya bein' from Staten Island."

"Easy."

"Hey, ya' know it's true. Staten's a hell of a lot nicer that Brooklyn."

Danny scoffed "Not that much nicer, believe me."

"Yeah, but still betta', ya' know. I bet you could go five feet from ya' house without bein' afraid a' bein' shot."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "That bad?"

"Worse. Prostitution was a normal thing, ya' know. Almost everyone's moms' were whores and their dads were either dead, in jail, or on their way to jail. I mean, seriously, when ya' went to bed, ya' slept below the windows."

"Charming. Yeah, Staten Island was akay, there were gangs and everythin' but there was food on the table, and at least half the kids stayed in school."

"The other half?"

"Gangs, teenage moms, drug dealers, whores, you name it."

"Nice." She slammed the gas and cut in front of another car almost taking the bumper off of the cab in front of them.

"How many brothas' ya got?"

"Six. Calvin's the baby; he's sixteen, Nathan's nineteen, Damian's twenty-one, Gideon's a year older than me, he's twenty-five, Dean's twenty-seven, and Frank's almost twenty-nine."

"All seven of ya' stayed outta trouble? That's amazin. Seven kids growin' up in Brooklyn. Jesus."

Aiden scoffed "Not exactly. Afta' our mom died, Frank tried to keep it togetha' he got a job, ya' know, but, uh, Adam, he was my other brotha', he joined some gang; got in pretty deep and got killed in a fight a year lata. Shit happens, ya know?"

"Yeah."

"You gotta' sista', right?"

"Yeah, Samantha. She's 30. Two years younga'."

"What's her story?"

"Stayed outta' trouble. I was the kid who got sent to the principal with a black eye almost every day."

"Yeah? I can one-up ya." She pulled her shirt up and pushed the hip of her jeans down seductively far. Danny sucked in a breath and tried to make himself think platonically. He'd never seen this much of Aiden before. He didn't even care about the ghastly scar across her hip. He traced it lightly.

"What'd ya' do?"

Aiden had trouble concentrating. "Old boyfriend. Not the nicest guy."

"No kiddin'. Hope one a' ya' brotha's punched the guys' lights out."

"Na, but lets say I got pissed and he won't be reproducin'."

Danny smirked and shook his head. Aiden parallel parked and climbed out of the car, grabbing her jacket as she did so. She was only wearing a tee shirt and her stitches were blatantly obvious, which was definitely what she didn't want here. Danny took the lead and knocked on the door of the gross apartment. It was located in queens, and definitely not the kind-of ok residential area.

A scraggly-looking teenage girl opened the door. She couldn't have been more than eighteen, and she was balancing a baby on her hip, with a kid pulling at the girls' oversized tee shirt, that definitely didn't cover her protruding pregnant stomach.

"Dashell Smith here?" Danny asked the girl

"Yeah, lemme get 'im." The girl disappeared for a second and then reappeared. He's comin' you can come in, if you want."

Danny and Aiden stepped inside the cramped room and were hit with the overwhelming smell of BO and Pot. Aiden obviously smelt it too, even through her cold. She shriveled he nose a bit at the smell when the girl turned her back.

Dashell came down the stairs in a wife-beater, obviously a bit drunk/stoned. Beer cans littered the apartment. Aiden hated this part of the job, Taking kids into the system was no fun.

"Hey Aiden, ya' wanna take the kids into the other room while I talk to Mr. Smith, here."

"Sure."

The mom looked a bit nervous. As she handed the baby over to Aiden, and Aiden took the kids' hand. The living room had a good view into the kitchen so Aiden could still see what was going on. She hoped this wouldn't get violent. She didn't know what Smith was gonna pull in his stoned-out state.

"What's your name?" She asked the kid, who sat on the stained rug with a toy train.

"Morris."

"I'm Aiden, Morris, how old are you?"

"Five."

"How old's your brotha'?"

"One. Are you here to arrest my dad?"

For once, Aiden couldn't think of anything to say.

Danny could see Aiden in the other room with the kids. He had Ashley and Dashell in the kitchen, interrogating them about the death of Roxy Lewis.

"Look," Danny said, "I see how it went down, you were sleepin' with Roxy and ya' didn't want Ashley to find out, so ya' had to get rid of her. Ya' killed her and tried to get the paint offa' her so we wouldn't link it back to ya'. Too late. We found your DNA underneath her fingernails, mixed with paint. You scrubbed her body with bleach to get the paint off, and you left her at a party for someone else to discover. The chlorine from the pool and soda water were obviously also from the party."

Ashley stood there, taking it all in. Mouth slightly agape.

Danny carried on, Ashley found her, and put her in that mail box, didn't she? Didn't she?"

Dashell refused to answer. "Ya' know what, whatever, if you're not gonna talk here, ya' gonna talk down at the station." Danny signaled the cop in who had come during the interrogation. The cop cuffed Ashley while Danny cuffed Dashell.

"You are under arrest for the murder of Roxy Lewis, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney, if you can not afford one, one will be provided for you……" As Danny recited his rights, the kid came running into the room Aiden following closely behind.

"NO!" The kid shouted, screaming at the top of his lungs "No!" Aiden grabbed him around the waist, the kid was kicking and fighting and screaming while Aiden restrained him "I hate you! I hate you! I….." The kid dissolved into sobs and Aiden carried him outside, handing him off to a police officer. Danny handed Dashell off to a police officer and walked into the living room to get the baby.

Ashley sat in the backseat of a police car, wrapped in a blanket, looking indignant.

Aiden climbed into the car beside her. She was absolutely unshakeable.

Ashley looked pissy. "You think I'm talkin' to you? Hell no."

"Did I ask you to talk? You just made things easier for me. Just stay shut up, and we can make this quick. Your kid tore my stitches out and I need to make this fast."

Ashley stared out the window with steely resolve.

"How old are you? Seventeen?"

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen? Jesus. Cause' you don't look eighteen. You're about, what, seven months along, with your **third kid.** I mean, Jesus Christ, what do you need to get you to wake up? I mean, when I was eighteen, I got the hell out. I got into NYU, I took classes. I told myself I was gonna be somethin', be someone. Thos are your kids out there! You know where they're goin'? They're goin' into the system. You and Dashell got sixteen years without parole. You neva' gonna see your babies again! As soon as this baby's born, it's goin' into the system! That what you want?"

Ashley turned around suddenly "Yeah, well it ain't that easy, ok? I been stuck here, I live in queens ok, not fifth avenue or wherever like you skinny-ass white girls, that's the truth."

"Well ya' wanna know somethin'? I'm from Brooklyn. The tough part, ok? My momma got killed when I was twelve and my brother got killed in a gang fight a year later, that's life. It's unfair, and sometimes it hurts like hell, but everyone's' gotta do it. It might be sick and twisted, but it's as much justice as I got, and I'm grateful for that much. I had a series of bad boyfriends, one who beat the shit outta' me. You wanna know the other truth? I'm twenty-four years old. If I don't take what I got, then I got nothin'. I have a shit apartment, cause' I only get $34,000.00 a year. I'm lucky cause' I got a nice boss and he helps me out here and there. I got a brother whose missin', no one's seen him in two months, another ones' in jail for another two years for armed robbery, met my dad once, and he told me I was a white-trash nothin'. He's gone now, don't know where he is, don't care. If I hadn't cared about where my life was now, I don't even wanna think about where'd I'd be. Probably dead. Or worse. Back in Brooklyn, workin' the streets. No food on the table, with seven or eight kids. Probably riddled with STDs. Nothin'. A nobody."

Aiden shook her head and reached for the door handle. With her back turned, she said lowly. "All I'm sayin is; nobody can make you; it's all you. Ya gotta make it happen for you."

She opened the door and stepped out into the cold April wind. Danny was waiting by the car. She forgot all about the stitches. She'd just go tomorrow. She was suddenly tired. She handed the keys off to Danny and walked around to the passenger seat. About half of an hour into the ride, Danny refused to keep quiet anymore.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet."

Aiden nodded "Just tired."

"Ya' busted ya' stitches."

"Yeah."

"Hospital time."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO."

"Aiden. I'm not gonna fight ya' on this."

He pulled into the hospital parking lot, with a sulky Aiden glowering at him from the passengers' seat.

The car was shot to shit. With the damaged stitches re-done, Aiden felt considerably better, though still a bit pissed at Danny. But still, the car was beat up.

"Well, that's real nice." Danny said, calling Mac to report about the car. Aiden only smirked. It was probably Dashells' boys. Mac told Danny he would send people out to get the car.

Now, they needed a cab. Danny hailed a cab and let Aiden get in first. He gave the driver her home address. Aiden could feel the cab guy watching her and she smirked. Looking out the window, the bright lights of time square passed by in a blur, she thought back to what she had told Ashley earlier. About making it happen.

Danny had been rambling onto himself for a couple minutes. Something about 'ungrateful kids trashing federal cars'. Aiden hoped Danny wouldn't think she was a major slut.

"Yo, Danny." He looked over to her expectantly, but she caught him completely off guard when she kissed him straight on the mouth. He didn't even have time to think about it, because it felt so right, and, hey, it had been bound to happen at some point, right? She opened her mouth wider, deepening the kiss. Danny bit back a groan when she swung her leg over his lap. He pulled back, breathing heavy.

"My place is closer." He said breathily, he had a hard time concentrating with Aiden sucking on his neck like that.

Aiden nodded. Danny shouted out the new address to the cabbie, who rolled his eyes and took the next left.

Aiden and Danny stumbled up to Danny's apartment, which was thankfully was on the fourth floor, cause' if it was up any higher, the next person taking the elevator would've gotten quite the surprise. Danny somehow managed to unlock the door, yanking Aiden in behind him. They hardly even made it to the bed. Tripping over yesterdays' newspaper, and slamming into the wall, they fell into the bed haphazardly.

Aiden was sleeping, her head in the crook of Danny's neck. He never would have guessed it would actually happen. He'd always wanted it to, but always figured it would just be another one of those things. He pressed a kiss to the back of her head and rolled over a bit to turn off the light. And shut off the alarm. Danny figured they could be a little bit late to work in the morning.

Right out of here,

Love is all we needed,

The space between,

What's wrong and right,

Is where you'll find me hiding,

Waiting for you,

The space between your heart and mine

Is the space we filled with time.

The Space Between, The Dave Matthews Band

A/N: Review, please!


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